Interested in what folks on the list make of this:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0511/Harpootlian_Rationale_for_these_huge_majorityminority_districts_is_gone.html
Harpootlian: 'Rationale for these huge majority-minority districts is gone'
Richard Harpootlian, the South Carolina trial lawyer who is, again,
chairman of the Democratic Party here, said today that he will fight
to loosen the Voting Rights Act's restrictions on the role of race in
drawing district lines in a bid to remake southern politics.
State politics from Florida through much of the South are
characterized by districts like James Clyburn's in South Carolina,
gerrymandered to be as heavily African-American as possible, and
required to stay that way under a legal doctrine that bars
"retrogression" -- that is, lowering the black share of a district.
That system has been backed by black Democrats and by Republicans, as
it tends to concentrate Democratic voters into smaller numbers of safe
districts, rather than scattering them to make more, more competitive
districts.
"Hopefully the Obama Justice Department will wake up and smell the
coffee," Harpootlian said in an interview his Columbia office. "The
rationale for creating these huge majority-minority districts is just
gone."
"The election of Barack Obama and [African-American Republican South
Carolina Rep.] Tim Scott have proved there's no reason to create these
huge majority-black districts," he said, citing the large shares of
white votes that both got.
"Reapportionment could dramatically change the nature of districts in
the South," he said.
Harpootlian said he expect the South Carolina Democratic Party, which
is shut out of the redistricting process, to file suit against
Republican lines, and that he hopes to litigate the matter up to a
Supreme Court which has taken steps toward loosening the Civil
Rights-era restrictions on retrogression.